A magic carpet , also called a flying carpet , is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction . It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its user(s) to their destination.
31-589: One of the stories in the One Thousand and One Nights relates how Prince Husain, the eldest son of Sultan of the Indies , travels to Bisnagar ( Vijayanagara ) in India and buys a magic carpet. This carpet is described as follows: "Whoever sitteth on this carpet and willeth in thought to be taken up and set down upon other site will, in the twinkling of an eye, be borne thither, be that place nearhand or distant many
62-497: A tale type as follows: The Aarne–Thompson Tale Type Index divides tales into sections with an AT number for each entry. The names given are typical, but usage varies; the same tale type number may be referred to by its central motif or by one of the variant folktales of that type, which can also vary, especially when used in different countries and cultures. The name does not have to be strictly literal for every folktale. For example, The Cat as Helper (545B) also includes tales where
93-403: A common, non-polluting means of transportation - in fierce competition with the also available flying brooms . Travelers need not sit on the bare carpet itself, as the carpet serves as the platform for a comfortable cabin. Magic carpets have also been featured in modern literature, movies, and video games, and not always in a classic context. In " traditional Chinese fantasy literature " from
124-401: A day's journey and difficult to reach." The literary traditions of several other cultures also feature magical carpets, in most cases literally flying rather than instantly transporting their passengers from place to place. Solomon 's carpet was reportedly made of green silk with a golden weft, sixty miles (97 km) long and sixty miles (97 km) wide: "when Solomon sat upon the carpet he
155-798: A fox helps the hero. Closely related folktales are often grouped within a type. For example, tale types 400–424 all feature brides or wives as the primary protagonist, for instance The Quest for a Lost Bride (400) or the Animal Bride (402). Subtypes within a tale type are designated by the addition of a letter to the AT number, for instance: tale 510, Persecuted Heroine (renamed in Uther's revision as Cinderella and Peau d'Âne ["Cinderella and Donkey Skin"]), has subtypes 510A, Cinderella , and 510B, Catskin (renamed in Uther's revision as Peau d'Asne [also "Donkey Skin"]). (See other examples of tale types in
186-460: A magic tent, a present from the fairy Paribanou (Peri Banu), which would cover a whole army when spread, yet fold up into so small a compass that it might be carried in one's pocket. The tale is a combination of two tale types listed in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index : ATU 653A: "The Rarest Thing in the World", and ATU 465: "The Man Persecuted because of His Beautiful Wife". The tale
217-693: Is also considered to be one of the so called "orphan stories" of the Arabian Nights compilation, because a Persian or Indian original text has not been found, unlike other tales. Some scholars, including Ulrich Marzolph [ de ] and Ruth Bottigheimer , ascribe its source to a Maronite Christian named Hanna Diyab , from whom French author Antoine Galland collected the story. According to Ulrich Marzolph, tales collected later from oral tradition derive from Galland's translation of this story in The Arabian Nights . The story
248-406: The motifs by which they are classified. Furthermore, Propp contended that using a "macro-level" analysis means that the stories that share motifs might not be classified together, while stories with wide divergences may be grouped under one tale type because the index must select some features as salient. He also observed that although the distinction between animal tales and tales of the fantastic
279-507: The online resource links at the end of this article.) As an example, the entry for 510A in the ATU index (with cross-references to motifs in Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature in square brackets, and variants in parentheses) reads: 510A Cinderella . (Cenerentola, Cendrillon, Aschenputtel.) A young woman is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters [S31, L55] and has to live in
310-464: The ashes as a servant. When the sisters and the stepmother go to a ball (church), they give Cinderella an impossible task (e.g. sorting peas from ashes), which she accomplishes with the help of birds [B450]. She obtains beautiful clothing from a supernatural being [D1050.1, N815] or a tree that grows on the grave of her deceased mother [D815.1, D842.1, E323.2] and goes unknown to the ball. A prince falls in love with her [N711.6, N711.4], but she has to leave
341-408: The ball early [C761.3]. The same thing happens on the next evening, but on the third evening, she loses one of her shoes [R221, F823.2]. The prince will marry only the woman whom the shoe fits [H36.1]. The stepsisters cut pieces off their feet in order to make them fit into the shoe [K1911.3.3.1], but a bird calls attention to this deceit. Cinderella, who had first been hidden from the prince, tries on
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#1732801955129372-502: The clever daughter-in-law (and variants); The travelling girl and her helpful siblings ; and Woman's magical horse , as named by researcher Veronica Muskheli of the University of Washington. In regards to the typological classification, some folklorists and tale comparativists have acknowledged singular tale types that, due to their own characteristics, would merit their own type. Although such tales often have not been listed in
403-667: The extensive body of sexual and 'obscene' material", and that – as of 1995 – "topics like homosexuality are still largely excluded from the type and motif indexes." In an essay, Alan Dundes also criticized Thompson's handling of the folkloric subject material, which he considered to be "excessive prudery" and a form of censorship. The ATU folktype index has been criticized for its apparent geographic concentration on Europe and North Africa, or over-representation of Eurasia and North America. The catalogue appears to ignore or under-represent other regions. Central Asian examples include: Yuri Berezkin [ ru ] 's The captive Khan and
434-517: The fairy Pari Banou , is one of the tales of the Arabian Nights compilation. One of the Islamic kings of India had three sons, namely Houssain (Husayn), Ali, and Ahmed (Ahmad), and a niece named Nouronnihar (Nur al-Nahar). Prince Ahmed was the younger brother of Houssain. The latter possessed a magic carpet of wondrous locomotive powers. Ahmed was equally blessed in the ownership of
465-529: The hero to find his way "beyond thrice-nine lands, in the thrice-ten kingdom". Russian painter Viktor Vasnetsov illustrated the tales featuring a flying carpet on two occasions. In Mark Twain 's " Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven ", magic wishing carpets are used to instantaneously travel throughout Heaven. Poul Anderson 's Operation Chaos features a world making extensive use of magic in daily life, and among other things having flying carpets as
496-759: The index was translated into English, revised, and expanded by American folklorist Stith Thompson (1928, 1961 ), and later further revised and expanded by German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther (2004). The ATU index is an essential tool for folklorists, used along with the Thompson (1932) Motif-Index of Folk-Literature . Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn devised a preliminary analysis of some 40 tale "formulae" as introduction to his book of Greek and Albanian folktales , published in 1864. Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould , in 1866, translated von Hahn's list and extended it to 52 tale types, which he called "story radicals" . Folklorist J. Jacobs expanded
527-560: The international folktale system, they can exist in regional or national classification systems. A quantitative study published by folklorist S. Graça da Silva and anthropologist J.J. Tehrani in 2016, tried to evaluate the time of emergence for the "Tales of Magic" (ATU 300–ATU 749), based on a phylogenetic model. They found four of them to belong to the Proto-Indo-European stratum of magic tales. Ten more magic tales were found to be current throughout
558-496: The late Qing dynasty and before, sentient flying carpets were thought to be " magical monsters " in the same category as lung , qilin , or clouds for heroes to traverse distances with. In Taoism and Taoist art, flying carpets were used as poetic metaphors for the ability of flight xian had. In Tibetan Tantric Buddhism , a paper carpet were thought to be able to fly for "adept[s]". Ahmed and Paribanou Ahmed and Paribanou , or The Story of Prince Ahmed and
589-472: The list to 70 tale types and published it as "Appendix C" in Burne & Gomme 's Handbook of Folk-Lore . Before the edition of Antti Aarne 's first folktale classification, Astrid Lunding translated Svend Grundtvig 's system of folktale classification. This catalogue consisted of 134 types, mostly based on Danish folktale compilations in comparison to international collections available at
620-401: The original index. He points out that Thompson's focus on oral tradition sometimes neglects older versions of stories, even when written records exist, that the distribution of stories is uneven (with Eastern and Southern European as well as many other regions' folktale types being under-represented), and that some included folktale types have dubious importance. Similarly, Thompson had noted that
651-568: The second half of the century. Another edition with further revisions by Thompson followed in 1961. According to American folklorist D.L. Ashliman , The AT-number system was updated and expanded in 2004 with the publication of The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography by German folklorist H.-J. Uther . Uther noted that many of the earlier descriptions were cursory and often imprecise, that many "irregular types" are in fact old and widespread, and that "emphasis on oral tradition " often obscured "older, written versions of
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#1732801955129682-406: The shoe and it fits her. The prince marries her. Combinations: This type is usually combined with episodes of one or more other types, esp. 327A, 403, 480, 510B, and also 408, 409, 431, 450, 511, 511A, 707, and 923. Remarks: Documented by Basile, Pentamerone (I,6) in the 17th century. The entry concludes, like others in the catalogue, with a long list of references to secondary literature on
713-575: The tale type index might well be called The Types of the Folk-Tales of Europe, West Asia, and the Lands Settled by these Peoples . However, Dundes notes that in spite of the flaws of tale type indexes (e.g., typos, redundancies, censorship, etc.; Author Pete Jordi Wood claims that topics related to homosexuality have been excluded intentionally from the type index. Similarly, folklorist Joseph P. Goodwin states that Thompson omitted "much of
744-497: The tale types". To remedy these shortcomings Uther developed the Aarne–Thompson–Uther (ATU) classification system and included more tales from eastern and southern Europe as well as "smaller narrative forms" in this expanded listing. He also put the emphasis of the collection more explicitly on international folktales, removing examples whose attestation was limited to one ethnic group. In The Folktale , Thompson defines
775-534: The tale, and variants of it. In his essay "The motif-index and the tale type index: A critique", American folklorist Alan Dundes explains that the Aarne–Thompson indexes are some of the "most valuable tools in the professional folklorist's arsenal of aids for analysis". The tale type index was criticized by V. Propp of the Russian Formalist school of the 1920s for ignoring the functions of
806-521: The time by other folklorists, such as the Brothers Grimm 's and Emmanuel Cosquin 's. Antti Aarne was a student of Julius Krohn and his son Kaarle Krohn . Aarne developed the historic-geographic method of comparative folkloristics , and developed the initial version of what became the Aarne–Thompson tale type index for classifying folktales , first published in 1910 as Verzeichnis der Märchentypen ("List of Fairy Tale Types"). The system
837-512: The water of the River Tigris , then an enormous prayer rug ( sajjada ) appears in the sky above, "as if it were the flying carpet of Solomon [ bisat Sulaiman ]". In Russian folk tales, Baba Yaga can supply Ivan the Fool with a flying carpet or some other magical gifts (e.g. a ball that rolls in front of the hero showing him the way, or a towel that can turn into a bridge). Such gifts help
868-496: Was adapted by German film director Lotte Reiniger as the film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index ( ATU Index ) is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies . The ATU index is the product of a series of revisions and expansions by an international group of scholars: Originally published in German by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne (1910),
899-434: Was based on identifying motifs and the repeated narrative ideas that can be seen as the building-blocks of traditional narrative; its scope was European. The American folklorist Stith Thompson revised Aarne's classification system in 1928, enlarging its scope, while also translating it from German into English. In doing so, he created the "AT number system" (also referred to as "AaTh system") which remained in use through
930-562: Was basically correct – no one would classify " Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf " as an animal tale, just because of the wolf – it did raise questions because animal tales often contained fantastic elements, and tales of the fantastic often contained animals; indeed a tale could shift categories if a peasant deceived a bear rather than a devil. In describing the motivation for his work, Uther presents several criticisms of
961-608: Was caught up by the wind, and sailed through the air so quickly that he breakfasted at Damascus and supped in Media ." The wind followed Solomon's commands, and ensured the carpet would go to the proper destination; when Solomon was proud, for his greatness and many accomplishments, the carpet gave a shake and 40,000 fell to their deaths. The carpet was shielded from the sun by a canopy of birds. In Shaikh Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Tadifi al-Hanbali 's book of wonders, Qala'id-al-Jawahir ("Necklaces of Gems"), Shaikh Abdul-Qadir Gilani walks on